Klaus Schulze

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Brainvoyager, Jun 6, 2013.

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  1. Grootna

    Grootna Senior Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Irrlicht
    Dune
    Cyborg
    Silver Edition
    Mirage
    X
    Audentity

    in no particular order. The first Go lp is fantastic... what a supergroup with Dimeola, Yamashta, Winwood. Never get tired of that record. Used to be easy to find in the cut out bins. Still not all that hard to score a copy. Need to pull out the live in Paris lp....haven't heard that one in along time.
     
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2016
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  2. thematinggame

    thematinggame Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Mirage and Moondawn are my two favourites - really outstanding music
     
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  3. HiredGoon

    HiredGoon Forum Resident

    Timewind was my first, and will always be my fave.

    --Geoff
     
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  4. Ivor Hugh J'ampton

    Ivor Hugh J'ampton Member

    Location:
    Canada
    I have some serious disconnect issues:

    I mix-up celery with lettuce and visa-versa.

    I always mis-spell "occassion" (never remembering if its the "c" or the "s" that is doubled)


    I find it hard not to include a "t" in Schulze.
     
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  5. ...then you'd be looking for Paul,

    in the Fourth World
     
  6. The_Windmill

    The_Windmill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Italy
    Schulze is a pioneer and a visionary but his discography is too wide for me to explore, considering that it takes me a lot of time to "get" one of his records.

    I stopped at the beginning of the Eighties (I'm biased towards the Seventies), safe a couple of things heard online.

    I've seen him live once, in Italy, do't remember the date but it could have easily been more than 12 years ago. It was a one man band show, intriguing.

    Anyway, I believe his music has pros and cons. Both are consequence of his highly improvisational approach. I like structured music, that I can follow logically, or pure ambient music I can lose myself into. Klaus (the one I know) is neither. He is generally not structured (if not for general editing) but not ambient either, cause sometimes melodies are prominent. But they are improv melodies nevertheless, and tend to be meandering and dispersive. They are prominent enough that you can't ignore them but not interesting enough to keep the attention focused. Also, sometimes the "method" of improvising wildly and cut/paste the best parts is too obvious.

    So, I tend to prefer the works where this contradictions (pass me the term) are less strong: X, Irrlicht (with reservations - but that album is just so cosmic, man!) and Mirage.

    I went back to Cyborg yesterday, liking it more than I remembered.
     
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  7. soundQman

    soundQman Senior Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA, USA
    That was a very perceptive description of Klaus' music and how he makes it, which matches with how he described his own methods in an interview he gave a few years ago. Whether one finds it more or less compelling as a listening experience is, of course, subjective. I think the editing and cut-and-paste he does now in the digital domain is different from his earlier work, when he was using analog synths, and was producing what I would call electronic trance music. It's a different kind of musical experience - one that depends more on texture, atmospherics, and slowly-modulating changes than structure or melodies that stand out. (Edgar Froese and Tangerine Dream made a transition to more structured compositions and melody, while Klaus stayed in the more improvisational mileu that they shared initially. Both continued to add to their orchestra of sounds that could be used either live or on record, but they certainly developed different ways to use them.) The quality of Klaus' early work would vary from album to album. I imagine that he recorded hours upon hours of music that way, and tried to select the best 40 minute stretches in his tape archive for public release on the albums. Once he picked up the pace in the digital era, and started releasing those big box sets of music from his archives, the discrimination of quality and selection went downhill. And as you say, the discography is too wide. It have almost all of it, but I can't digest it, really. There are a few individual gems in there, particularly more recently when he reintegrated analog synths back into his process.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2016
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  8. The_Windmill

    The_Windmill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Italy
    I'm listening to the Ballett 1-4 series.
    Interesting moody music, but I suspect the lead acoustic parts are not Klaus' work.
    Whatever, 1-2 are a good listen.
     
  9. Echo waves

    Echo waves Well-Known Member

    Location:
    United States
    Great recent posts here on this old thread. My favorite album by Klaus would still have to be Body Love (original, not BL2) which doesn't seem to get a lot of mention for some reason. In my opinion, it is perhaps the best of his legacy albums of the 70s and the one where I feel everything finally came together. His improvisational and more structured approaches feel more balanced, and although brief for KS, Blanche is one of the most gorgeous pieces of electronic music ever pulled from the heavens. Cyborg and Picture Music would probably be my second and third but not necessarily in that order. Cyborg is definitely one of those albums for which you need to be in a mood although it can be quite effective in putting you in one too. :)
     
  10. The_Windmill

    The_Windmill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Italy
    I'm having a "Klaus thing" these days and I browsed some info on the website.
    The concert I went to was in Bologna and almost surely it's the one (partially) covered in the "Bologna" CD in La Vie Electronique n.15 (and previous box-sets).

    I'm also "sampling" a lot of stuff from youtube or spotify and I came to the conclusion that I absolutely dislike both the techno-trance style of the Eighties than it's follow up in the Nineties (and those sounds don't age well, too).

    On the other end, when he drops it in favour of a more lounge-ish ant ambient-ish style, switching at the same time to a new sonic palette incorporating analogue and acoustic sounds, across the millennium, that's when I find him getting interesting again. Nothing "huge" like the old stuff, but relaxing and with sort-of a mind cleansing positive effect.
    A review I read said that he moves from mind music to mood music (or something), which I feel sort of describes it.

    Kontinuum (sort of "Mirage 2.0"?), The Cello, 'Nuff Said, Virtual Outback, the Balletts and maybe Shadowlands are titles I have to go deeper into, sooner or later.

    One question: I skipped the live stuff so far (too much to browse already): how does that compares to the studio counterparts?

    :wave:
     
  11. soundQman

    soundQman Senior Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA, USA
    The live concert DVDs included with the various editions of Big in Japan as well as the collaboration concerts with Lisa Gerard are amazing. You get to see how he works up close. He starts, stops and changes various digital loops and programs while improvising over the top of those sounds, which give the compositions their structure. He's composing on the fly essentially, some very complex music. In the case of the concerts with Gerard, she does vocal improvisation. I'm so happy he released these, because Klaus has never given any concerts in the U.S. and it's an opportunity for me to see and experience. His huge banks of equipment with blinking lights reminded me of the stage look of Tangerine Dream when they first toured the U.S. back in the mid-1970s. He swivels around his console of multiple keyboards to produce different sounds on various synths. The racks of equipment are at his back. At one point he does a speaking interlude to demonstrate what parts the sequencers are playing on autopilot. Fascinating stuff, and the music is great too. He really pulls everything together in stellar fashion. Maximum Schulze!
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2016
  12. rabarbar

    rabarbar Forum Resident

    I remember Trancefer. It was very good album
     
  13. Martyn

    Martyn Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ
    What is the name of the newest one you listened to?
     
  14. soundQman

    soundQman Senior Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA, USA
    A relatively recent Klaus studio album I'm partial to is Moonlake, from 2005. He integrates various approaches from his career, but at the same time it is heavily reminiscent of his older analog work, and holds a fair amount of melodic interest as well.
     
  15. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    I'm not entirely sure which one I was referring to. It might have been:

    The Schulze-Schickert Session
    Shadowlands
    or the La Vie Electronique 13 ‎comp
     
  16. Martyn

    Martyn Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phoenix, AZ
    OK, I was hoping it was Silhouettes. Thanks for letting me know, Silhouettes is my picture icon on left, it was thought to have come out a year or so ago, but has been delayed. Been a listener of KS since around 1977, have them all, official releases & a couple of promos, Ion & Andromeda as well.
     
  17. Runicen

    Runicen Forum Resident

    A few have commented that his catalog is "too deep," but I have to ask, is there really anything that one should avoid spending time on from his catalog?

    I should probably qualify here a bit... My introduction was Timewind, which I stupidly sold off before the SPV CDs all became rare as hens' teeth. It looks like they're all coming out again, but keeping up with that reissue campaign is a beast and a half financially...

    I picked up all of the La Vie Electronique comps because his stuff seemed to all be out of print and I found some kind soul had uploaded everything in FLAC... :shh: It seemed the fairest way to pay my way even if I couldn't pick up the albums themselves directly. Well, a hard drive crash later and all I had were the comps and none of the albums, so karma is real, apparently. :D

    Anyway, all that said, I've been tempted to take the approach with Schulze I do with most bands - start from the beginning and pick up EVERYTHING. Still, with a catalog as big as his, that's daunting. He's probably second only to Bill Nelson for, "WTF, there's still 20 I don't have?!"
     
  18. The_Windmill

    The_Windmill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Italy
    You'll die trying

    And even if you do, chances are your brain will reject it. :D
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2016
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  19. amonjamesduul

    amonjamesduul Forum Resident

    Location:
    florida
    IMO his early 90s stuff which is sample heavy is nothing like his 70s output and that could be a bad introduction to him.
     
  20. The_Windmill

    The_Windmill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Italy
    Hard too say. I guess what's boring to death to me is cool for someone else.
    The only sustainable approach is going for the big shots first. There's more likely to be agreement about those.

    Anyway, all of his official albums are on spotify. Not the box-sets, but you have that partially covered that already (and youtube has plenty).
    I believe in this case the try before buy method is necessary. Crappy sound, but good enough to make your own opinion.

    BTW, the OOP Ultimate Edition has the extended version of Georg Trakl from X. Even the reissue features a slightly shortened version (not to mention the crappy compression). It was left out when re-compiling La Vie Electronique.
    Just sayin' :wave:
     
  21. Runicen

    Runicen Forum Resident

    Did that track make it onto one of the La Vie Electronique volumes? Yes, I have all of them and I'm also not home to research that myself. :winkgrin:
     
  22. The_Windmill

    The_Windmill Forum Resident

    Location:
    Italy
    Nope, as I said it was left out (presumably because the SPV expanded edition was deemed to be enough). Only the companion track Crazy Nietzsche, made it through (vol. 7)
    You have to buy the whole out of print box just to materially HAVE it. How about that? XD
     
  23. tomunbound

    tomunbound Active Member

    Location:
    Denton ave.
    Klaus rules ! Of all the '70's and '80's KS vinyl I have Irrilicht and Mirage are my faves. The steel mill w/forging DVD is cool too. I got off the completest train around Dune and the Go albums...just a few CD's after that ....
     
  24. klockwerk

    klockwerk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio USA
    I bought Cyborg and Zeit (T.D.) when they were first released, based on a mention in Trouser Press (?). I've been following and collecting both artists ever since. My favorite Schulze album is still Cyborg, probably because it was my introduction. I do love the crude electronic sound on his first two albums, it's very hard to get that same sound with modern synths and effects. Timewind and X are also required albums in the EM parthenon.
     
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  25. Runicen

    Runicen Forum Resident

    What's the deal with all of the compression on X now? I'm assuming the new reissue will just be the old audio with new packaging rather than a new master, so the problem persists...

    Was this just introduced in the wave of SPV issues? Is it a known issue with other albums reissued in that run?
     
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